This invention relates cleaning devices and more particularly to hand-held cleaning devices utilizing a liquid cleaning solution.
Cleaning devices such as washing machines and washboards have existed for many years. Recently, deep cleaning vacuums including various attachments (e.g., the Bissell® ProHeat, Dirtdevil® Platinum Force, and the Hoover® Spin Scrub) have appeared to increase the ability of the average person to clean heavily soiled or stained items. Some of these devices have been reduced in size and are configured as hand-held deep cleaning devices for clothing. However, the effectiveness of these reduced size cleaning devices has been limited.
A new cleaning device that is hand-held and particularly well suited for use as a spot remover for clothing would be welcomed by those in the art. The new device preferably eliminates the need to manually scrub clothing, thereby preventing wetting of the entire garment during the cleaning operation. The new device preferably quickly and efficiently removes stains from clothing and similar items, and will allow the garment or item to be worn or used after a relatively short period of time, due to the fact that the entire garment is not wetted during the cleaning operation.
Other hand-held cleaning devices are known, including the Bissell® Spot Lifter and the Dirt Devil® Spot Scrubber, among others. However, none of the other known commercial devices employ a combination of convenience, space utilization for compactness, functionality, as well as hand-held specific component placement and housing footprint that minimizes deadspace.
Also, it has been found that pulsing a stain with a cleansing agent provides maximum cleaning power, by using the force of a repeated jet, combined with an economy of cleaning agent, since there is not a continuous flow to the stain during wetting. Finally, it would be desirable to have a readily available backing surface wherever the cleaning device is used.